OBSCENITY

The children sit in an iron cage
Day after day after day
While the fat old man rides a cushioned cart
Around the links to play

The Plot

Donald Trump, ugly man,
Signs a heartless Muslim ban
Turns the country upside down
Grabs his clubs, skips out of town,
And in the Kremlin, across the miles,
Putin smiles. Putin smiles.

Rounding out Heaven

Fiorella's heavenly addenda include finding everything of hers she has lost or that someone has taken from her or destroyed, like that autograph book her Brownie mates signed before she left Ohio, her painting of Grendal she took to school in the twelfth grade, her grandmother's and great-grandmother's engagement rings, the ceramic she molded of a beloved guinea pig.

And Fio wants to reunite with her parents (although her father will probably be playing golf with Gabriel and the guys) and to visit with friends and family who have preceded her.  And she wants to cuddle her first baby, the one who was never born, the one for whom she still mourns.  And she wants to see all her dogs--Tina, Freelove, Sandy, Blackie, Hugo, Bella, Wendy, and, when her time comes, sweet Sonia. Heaven wouldn't be heaven without dogs.

In Memoriam

Happy birthday to my father, who sang "Little Brown Jug" to me as he drove me to Sunday School when Mother was in the hospital giving birth to my brother, who taught me how to swing a golf club,  who financed my daughter's college education.  Dad had a generous heart and a noble spirit.
And I hope he is with me still.

The Constant

My father started playing golf a couple of years before he married Mother.  And he played it after they were married.  And he played it after my brother and I were born.  And after we moved to Texas.  And he played it after I went off to college in Austin and after I got married.  And he played it after Brother moved to Austin for college, then was sent to Germany by the army. And after his grandchildren were born  And after Mother died.  But not very long.

Macular degeneration had gotten the best of him.  And it was all downhill from there.